


A Different Weasley, Ficlets

by Etirdoyn (Nyodrite)



Series: The Affairs of Wizards [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Swap, Ficlet Collection, Meta, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-03 17:59:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12753318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyodrite/pseuds/Etirdoyn
Summary: In one world, Ron enters Harry's compartment and they become friends for life.This ain't that world.In this world, Charlie is the one whom enters the compartment - it changeseverything.





	1. Y1 - Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He paused as if a thought hit him. “Sorry, who are you?”
> 
> Harry hesitated but eventually said, “Harry….Harry Potter.”
> 
> “Huh.” The boy said instead of commenting, “I’m Charlie, Charlie Weasley - it’s nice to meet you and Hedwig, Harry.”

“Oh, _wow!_ ”

Harry resisted the urge to squirm at the sudden, awed exclamation. The magical world was _amazing_ but he _really_ could have done without the fame.

“Hi-….?” He trailed off the greeting when he turned to find a boy - red haired with so many freckles it was almost a tan instead - ignoring him entirely.

“Hey…” The boy said absent-mindedly, his entire focus on Hedwig.

Harry, puzzled but not about to argue over the situation (what would he even _say_? _Why are you looking at my owl as if **she** were the famous one?_ ), watched the boy watch Hedwig preen. Eventually, she seemed to have enough of being the center of attention and tucked her head beneath a wing.

“She’s _beautiful_.” The boy said, finally looking at Harry. “She looks young, fully mature mind - I think that you’re her first wizard. That’s not a bad thing! You don’t have to worry about her not delivering your letters! You being her first wizard is a good thing, really!” 

The boy smiled as if to reassure him. It was a bit crooked and not all the teeth were straight - one even looked sharp enough that Harry wondered about the existence of vampires - but it was a nice smile all the same.

Then the boy was barreling onwards, “Owls are loyal and have a very strong sense of duty, it’s why they’re the main means of communication for the Wizarding World, but they’re very particular to their first owner. And yours is a female, one who never had any chicks before and you yourself are still young - which she _knows_ \- so she’ll be doubly loyal to you and likely protective on top of _that_.”

The boy paused and, just when Harry was about to ask his name, said, “What’s her name?”

“Hedwig.” Harry answered in the expectant silence that followed, asking, “Do you like owls?”

“Sure,” the boy said agreeably. “They may not be my _favorite_ but they’re kind of amazing, you know?” He paused as if a thought hit him. “Sorry, who are you?”

Harry hesitated but eventually said, “Harry….Harry Potter.”

“Huh.” The boy said instead of commenting, “I’m Charlie, Charlie Weasley - it’s nice to meet you and Hedwig, Harry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >   
>  **I apparently made notes on this verse and the first meeting with Harry was originally different in my notes like;**  
> 
> 
> **  
> _Meeting Harry:_  
> ** Unlike in canon where Ron met Harry due to the seating of the Hogwarts Express, Charlie met Harry because of Hedwig. As in his family was on their way to the platform when he saw Hedwig and just had to see her up close, so Harry's introduction to Charlie was like, _"Hi, I'm Charlie. Your owl is beautiful, is it a boy or girl? I want to say girl but I never really studied owls that much - let alone Snowy Owls. What's their name? Do you think they'd let me pet them? I have some owl treats on me, is it alright if I gave them some?"_


	2. Y1: Mutters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Befriending Hermione:** Their friendship started quieter and, in a way,  _kinder_.

**Befriending Hermione:** Their friendship started quieter and, in a way,  _kinder_.

Charlie didn't really know Hermione at first, sure he saw her in the library whenever he got the urge to look up this creature or that and sure she sometimes helped him in class and he thanked her each time, but to him she was just a girl in his class. A casual acquaintance that really had nothing to do with him beyond classes.

Then, in early October, he came across Hermione in a dark corner of the library fighting tears because she had thought things would be  _different_  now, that she wouldn't be alone when there were others like her - others with magic who had weird things happen around them - who she might befriend, that she'd be able to write her parent about all the amazing things she learnt and the friends she made. Instead, she was faced with an entire  _fourth_  of the school population who hated her for no reason she could help and she was trying to deflect questions about friends from her parents - steadily writing less because she  _hated_  lying to them and how their questions emphasized how  _friendless_  she was only that didn't help either because she  _missed_  her parents and now she had  _no one_.

Charlie stumbles across Hermione nearing tears and she glares at him defiantly, because what's one  _more_  person making fun of her?, and he suddenly remembers Ginny- his little sister who came into his room the night before he left for Hogwarts, crying because now she'd be alone with all her brothers gone - and he  _knows_  he can't just walk away and pretend to have never seen this.

So he doesn't walk away, he sits next to the fellow first year Gryffindor whom he sees in the library and helps him in class and opens the book he had came to the library for - about the  _Welsh Green_  breed of dragons - and Charlie reads aloud. He doesn't say anything, just reads about Welsh Greens until they have to head up to Gryffindor Tower before curfew.

And Hermione is grateful, even if it's a one time thing borne from pity.

Only Charlie comes back, each day following the first he sets out after dinner to find her and then he takes a seat next to her and reads whatever book he has with him. They finish the book on Welsh Greens, then one on Hippogriffs and are mid-way through one about Phoenixes that Hermione finally manages to draw up her courage to ask,  _"Will...will you be my friend?"_

She shrinks back when he laughs but is overjoyed when he finally says,  _"Eh? But I thought we were friends already?"_


	3. Y1 - Reversal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did you just _leave_?” Bill sputters because his brother loved his job, for him to leave when he was on duty to visit - though… “ _Did you just Apparate to Egypt!?_ ”
> 
> The letter was waved in his face, “ _NOT IMPORTANT!_ ” Ron bellows at him, “ _DRAGON! AT! HOGWARTS!_ **CHARLIE!** ”

Bill’s younger brother shows up in a whirlwind of flailing, incoherent shouting and with limbs trembling even as the Auror dragged him to a secluded area before hastily erecting a privacy bubble. “I thought you didn’t have time off to visit until-” he starts to say.

Ron flails a bit more and now Bill can see his brother was holding a letter, “ _THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!_ ”

“Did you just _leave_?” Bill sputters because his brother loved his job, for him to leave when he was on duty to visit - though… “ _Did you just Apparate to Egypt!?_ ”

The letter was waved in his face, “ _NOT IMPORTANT!_ ” Ron bellows at him, “ _DRAGON! AT! HOGWARTS!_ **CHARLIE!** ”

“Let me see if I got this right,” he says, voice forcibly clam because _one_ of them has to and clearly it wasn’t going to be his brother. “Charlie wrote to you about a dragon at Hogwarts-” Ron nodded rapidly and Bill guessed, because it was  _Charlie_ and it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened - it had probably been too much to hope that _this_ particular habit wouldn’t pop up at Hogwarts. "-that he’s hiding from the teachers and now he wants our help to ‘free’ it into it’s natural habitat?“

Ron manages to keep from yelling though his words come out as loud and chocked, ” _How? Dragon! **How?!**_ “

”…I have no idea.“ Bill admitted, earning a kind of groaning shriek of dismay.

He was taught to deal with fearsome goblins, horrible curses and lethal traps - _not_ dragons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **“ _Did you just Apparate to Egypt!?_ ”** \- Yes, Ron so did apparate all the way to Egypt from his London Flat once he got the letter, he was actually sitting down for dinner when Hedwig arrived with Charlie's letter. It wasn't one big 'jump' from London to Egypt though, no he went through a series of 'jumps' to get to Egypt - by the time Ron finally reached Bill, an hour after reading the letter, he had Apparated 27 times.
> 
>  
> 
>  ** _he says, voice forcibly clam because_ one _of them has to and clearly it wasn’t going to be his brother._** -  To his younger siblings, Bill is the epitome of 'cool', 'calm' and 'chill' and panic is something he just doesn't _do_. At the same time, Bill only keeps his calm because he knows that it won't help if everyone is panicking at the same time. Privately, Bill has like zero chill and constantly freaks out about his family's antics.
> 
>  
> 
>  ** _and Bill guessed, because it was_ Charlie _and it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened - it had probably been too much to hope that_ this _particular habit wouldn’t pop up at Hogwarts._ ** \- smol!bb!Charlie had a tendency to bring home stray animals or injured ones, begging his brothers to help him hide them from their mother _"At least until it's healthy!"_ or _"At least until I find it a proper home!"_ depending on the animal.
> 
> (Spoiler: Molly was aware of her youngest son's antics, hard not to be when various cats brought home will climb into her and Arthur's bed after Charlie has fallen asleep. She pretended she didn't know, because 'keeping a secret from mom' was a good bonding experience for her children and she didn't mind since it wasn't anything _bad_ \- in fact she was proud of her youngest son's big heart and that of the rest of her children pitching in to help him.)


	4. Y1 - Mutters (II)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief mutter about how smuggling the dragon would have gone down

**Smuggling the Dragon:** Eventually, the two [Bill and Ron] had to go to Dumbledore for help because they had no idea what to do with a dragon nor did any of the friends they trusted to ask. Dumbledore, for his part, was amused when they swore him to silence-

_"If they find out about your involvement they'll panic and that won't help anyone," Bill pointed out logically, as if it were the actual reason. No, the real reason is that he and Ron were push overs for their younger siblings and Charlie would give them the cold shoulder if he ever found out that they went behind his back to the Headmaster._

\- but obligingly swore to never speak of his involvement. Dumbledore in turn went to Newt Scamander for help who was the one to jerry-rig a harness to carry a dragon that Bill and Ron used to smuggle Norberta from Hogwarts to the Scamander family home.

 

 **After the Smuggling:** Charlie sent his brothers letters, lots of them, to make sure that Norberta was safe and happy. Ron made the mistake of mentioning Newt's involvement and was subjected to a series of letters that were basically _"_ _WHAT HOW WHEN DO YOU STILL TALK TO HIM CAN I MEET HIM?!"_ and Ron eventually, during a visit to get a progress report on Norberta, begs Newt for a autograph to send Charlie.

**Author's Note:**

> Send a prompt or ask something about the verse here: [_@differentweasley_](http://differentweasley.tumblr.com)


End file.
